The present invention relates to apparatus for applying information to webs, sheets or cards, and more particularly to improvements in apparatus of the type wherein a ram or an analogous tool is movable with respect to a matrix or vice versa in order to apply information to a sheet-like information carrier which is placed therebetween.
It is already known to automatically issue a ticket (e.g., a punched card) to a customer who is about to drive his or her vehicle into a parking lot, especially into a self-service parking lot. The ticket is withdrawn from the slot of a dispenser whereby such withdrawal results in the transmission of a signal which causes the toll bar or ramp at the entrance to move to its inoperative position, i.e., the vehicle can be driven into the parking lot. The ticket contains information which is often encoded in binary form and denotes the date of parking and the time of the day. The information can be decoded by an automatic reader at the time the customer desires to remove his or her vehicle from the parking lot. Furthermore, the ticket can contain information which is not encoded (i.e., information which can be deciphered or perused by the customer) and normally denotes the day of parking and the time of the day.
The dispenser from which the tickets are withdrawn by customers contains or cooperates with means for applying to the ticket suitable information, e.g., with a printer or writer and a punching or stamping apparatus. The ram of the punching apparatus is guided in stationary ways, i.e., the ticket which is to be withdrawn must advance in stepwise fashion so that it is at a standstill when the ram is moved toward the matrix of the punching apparatus. As a rule, the ram cooperates with the matrix to encode information in the form of perforations.
A drawback of the just discussed dispensers is that they cannot employ continuously operated printers or writers, i.e., the printer or writer must also constitute an intermittently operated information applying device.